Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In recent years, various types of image forming devices (e.g., printing devices) have become popular for both business and consumer use. In addition to traditional black and white printers, color printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines, and other components are now common. Multifunctional products (MFPs), which support two or more of these operations, are also widely available.
Organizations (e.g., multi-national organizations or global organizations) may use a multitude of printing devices to service employees and/or clients of their organization. For example, if an organization has ten locations across the United States, each location may have an allotted number of printing devices to print, scan, fax, or otherwise process documents for members of the organization. The printing devices may be monitored (e.g., in case a malfunction occurs) and/or maintained (e.g., frequently upgraded to improve functionality).
In large organizations or large networks, monitoring and maintaining the various printing devices within the organization or network can be difficult. It can be particularly challenging to do reliably and efficiently if a single, centralized server is being used to manage a set of agents to perform maintenance on the printing devices.